After a 5 year struggle with anorexia (with purging tendencies), depression, self harm and over exercising I have now been recovered for 4 years and i use my blog to help others in the same situation i once was.
I am now a happy and positive person who wants to inspire those struggling to choose recovery and to take control over life and happiness again!

Life without Anorexia

My motto is 'Dont let the sadness of your past & the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present'

My life at the moment is completely different to how it once was. I spent 5 years sick with anorexia nervosia and depression as well as struggling with self harm and overexercising. I spent 2 years in different treatment centres.

And since 2012 i have been declared healthy from my eating disorder.

I have been blogging for 7 years, and my whole journey is written in my posts. I now represent healthy and happiness. I want to show anyone struggling that it is possible to recover, no matter how hard it may seem.

I now blog about recovery, my life, veganism and positivity!

If you have any questions leave them in the comment section as i am much quicker at answering there, otherwise you can always send an email: lifewithoutanorexia@hotmail.com

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Thursday, February 18, 2016

How to eat to maintain weight after an eating disorder (masterpost)

I got a few questions wondering about "how to eat after you reach your goal weight". And i understand your fear, you think that you will continue to gain weight or you think that you cant eat certain foods once you reach your goal weight or you think that you will havet o decrease alot and always be hungry.

That is not the case at all.... of course it is very individual and depends on your recovery as well.

But know that your weight should stabalize and your body adapt so that you dont keep gaining weight. And you should begin to eat more intuitively where you begin to trust your bodies signals and hunger and fullness, of course that can be a bit of a bumpy road in the beginning... but once you learn to trust your body then your weight should stay the same/be maintained as your body knows how much it needs and you eat according to your bodies signs. But that means that you trust your body and eat more if necessary but also if you arent as hungry you dont eat as much, so each day is different.

But also as you reach your goal weight you generally become more active, HENCE why you shouldnt exercise in recovery (just one of the reasons), because then as you reach your goal weight you become more active and it becomes +/-/0 and a balance. Though of course you should eat balanced and not workout like crazy to maintain your weight, that doesnt mean your weight is healthy. You should be able to eat balanced and no exercise and maintain your weight, then you are at your healthy set point. Otherwise small differences such as cutting down on one ro two glasses of juice/milk or not eating a morning snack will create that small deficit that makes the difference between maybe maintaining or gaining. So its not like you go from eating 2500kcal to suddenly only able to eat 1500... you still need to eat alot and should still be able to eat roughly the same, +/- .

And yes, you can still eat chocolate, cake, biscuits etc but it shouldnt be a daily thing.... i mean it shouldnt be a daily thing in recovery either. A balance!!! You can eat everything, but not everything all the time (if that makes sense!)

Basically... trying to listen to your body and trust your body. But also realising that sometimes the goal weight you want to be at, isnt always your healthy set point... sometimes you need to realise that your body will settle at a weight higher than you want it to be at, and then you need to accept that.

Anyway, as i have written quite a few posts about this topic i thought i would link to them and you can check them out and if you still have questions then comment below :)

7 comments:

Thanks for taking the time to put this post together, I have spent quite a time reading it through and looking up the links - very useful information.One thing though that's bothering me is where you wrote that its ok to eat chocolate, cake etc as long as its not a daily thing - I have a couple of biscuits for my snack in the morning and a couple of biscuits at night with my milk and I do this everyday, is this ok or should I stop?

If you enjoy the biscuits and it works for you, then eat them :) and I'm sure you can keep eating them even when yiu reach your goal weight :) but maybe some days try varying... like maybe some bread with topping or a granola bar or banana and peanut butter etc - just because eating balanced is best.. but maybe eat biscuits 6 days and something else one day!! :) variation is key, but of course what works for you is the best. I mean I still eat chocolate 3-5 days a week because I enjoy it and that doesn't mean I gain weight, it's part of my healthy diet to eat some chocolate :)

I basically eat dessert every day. Sometimes twice a day. It is probably too much sugar, but honestly I'm not too bothered by it. I have been recovered for years, and used to really worry about such things. Now, I don't care as much. The rest of my diet is very healthy, most of the time, and I run. I am not gaining weight, I have been at my set point for years. Sometimes I feel like I'm overdoing the sugar, and at those times I pull back a bit on the desserts for a couple days (as I have a massive sweet tooth and so when I'm not paying attention I can end up eating half my food in sugars!! I do not recommend that lol). But it works for me to have something sweet every day. Sometimes I read something about how I should only have dessert once or twice a week, and I try to cut back - but honestly, due to my ED history, as soon as I try to set limits with my food, it triggers obsessive thoughts (and I end up bingeing or undereating or focusing on my body), and so I avoid doing that. I avoid anything that triggers body-conscious thoughts, as I'm much happier just living my life the way is best for me. In my opinion, eat biscuits every day! I will say there are days I don't eat dessert, if I don't have anything good, or I'm busy, or my body is craving something else. But most of the time I do. I wouldn't worry too much about it :)

Exactly, you have found YOUR balance and that is awesome. I mean according to recommendations eating the amount of chocolate I do weekly or salted nuts isn't so good, but I feel good and I enjoy it. But also it's a balance for me, both my body and mind is healthy. So those "recommendations " are just that... recommendations. They aren't rules, you do what you feel best from! :)

Thanks both of you for your replies. I feel better about it now! Iwas thinking about it last night and thought perhaps it would be good to vary things a bit and for me to try new foods instead of being stuck in a rut. so this morning its rice cakes and peanut butter, which is surprisingly good! I think the biscuit thing in the morning got to be a habit more than anything although I`m going to keep my biscuits and warm milk at night.I`ll still have biscuits for AM snack sometimes but not all the time. I didn't think it could feel so good to try something different!

Hi Izzy, thank you so much for this post! I am in need of some advice though, I am currently at a BMI of 21 and I eat around 2300 calories a day as this is what I seem to be hungry for and I am still gaining weight...not too much, but about 1lb every 2 weeks and it's really starting to freak me out...I mean, I'm struggling with my body as it is and I can't deal with this weight gain! What should I do? I never ate 'recovery amounts' (I.e. Over 2500 calories a day) and I'm worried that I've messed up my metabolism! But I don't want to restrict below 2300 because otherwise I'll be hungry! I am moderately active - I don't exercise like crazy, and I don't sit around all day either and I'm really stuck! Xxx

Izzy, how did you learn about your body so that you knew HOW to exercise? You always say you train different muscle groups etc, but one needs to know quite a lot to know what one is doing and how to do it safely.I don't do much exercise, but often if I try I find something hurts, and it's not always the same thing each time. I work sitting down and I don't sit very well, so I guess I'm hardly helping myself, but I don't know what one is meant to do. (I'm a healthy weight and have been many years now.)Please don't worry if you haven't time to answer this!

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About Me

Hello :)
I have had Anorexia and depression for c.a 5 years and been in and out of hospital for 2 years. But now im living my life like a normal teenager, I still have my ups and downs now and again, but i still stay positive and never give up.
In my blog i write about my daily life, and my opinions and views on certain things and i bring up topics and information that i think needs to be passed on!!
Leave a comment - love reading comments from people :)
If anyone wants to get in contact with me.
Mail me here --> lifewithoutanorexia@hotmail.com